The subject invention is directed to fluid inflation apparatus, and more specifically to aspirators for inflating inflatable devices such as aircraft emergency evacuation slides, life rafts, and other similar devices requiring rapid inflation.
Numerous inflation apparatus for inflating inflatable devices such as slides and rafts are known in the art. Basically, these systems inflate inflatable structures using a quantity of primary gas that is stored in a tank, in combination with a mass flow aspirator that entrains secondary gas, typically outside air, as the primary gas flows through the mass flow aspirator thereby producing sufficient gas to inflate a large inflatable structure or device such as an aircraft slide or life raft. The aspirator typically has injectors therein which act to entrain large quantities of a secondary fluid using small quantities of a primary fluid thereby resulting in a large combined flow of gas forcibly flowing into the inflatable structure.
Efficiency of the primary gas in entraining large quantities of a secondary gas is important since the greater the efficiency the lesser the quantity of primary gas needed. Since aspirators are typically used to inflate devices that must be stored in small areas such as on airplanes and boats (for air slides and life rafts), it is therefore desirable to have the highest efficiency possible which results in the smallest primary gas tank.
Many different types of aspirators are known in the prior art. These aspirators are satisfactory to a greater or lesser degree but often have certain inefficiencies or design configurations which make them unreliable, inefficient or difficult to manufacture, apt to leak, subject to leaks from debris ingestion or inconvenient or bulky to package. It is, accordingly, a primary object of the subject invention to provide an aspirator that is highly efficient, does not leak, is simple and efficient to manufacture, is sufficiently small to be easily storable on aircraft and watercraft, and is simple and efficient to manufacture.